Silver Spring, Maryland—Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital decreased its rates of patient falls by 33 percent and pressure ulcers acquired by patients during a hospital stay by 60 percent over three years.

The Burke Rehabilitation Hospital increased its percentage of registered nurses with national certification in rehabilitation from 8 percent to 56 percent between 2004 and 2011.

What do they have in common? Both participate in the American Nurses Association’s (ANA)National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®), the nation’s most comprehensive database of nursing performance measures. And both were among six hospitals receiving national honors today for achieving outstanding nursing quality.

The 2011 NDNQI Award for Outstanding Nursing Quality® honorees were identified from among more than 1,800 hospitals — about one-third of all U.S. hospitals — that report results to the database. The winners are:

The awards were announced at the ANA Nursing Quality Conference™ in Las Vegas, attended by over 1,100 nursing and health care quality leaders. The award-winners demonstrated superior results and sustained improvement in patient outcomes that are tied to the quality of nursing services and nurse work environment factors. ANA has presented the awards for the last five years.

NDNQI, a program of ANA’s National Center for Nursing Quality® (NCNQ®), tracks a broad range of outcomes that indicate the quality of nursing services, such as hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, patient falls and infections. It also establishes links between patient outcomes and nurse staffing characteristics, such as nursing care hours, education level, certification, and turnover. NDNQI allows nursing units to compare their performance to similar units at hospitals on the community, regional and national levels, and use data to set benchmarks for excellence.